Councilman Calls For Detroit Mayor’s Removal From Office After ‘Violation’

Councilman Kwame Kenyatta is urging his colleagues to look at removing Bing from office over actions taken in the Health and Workforce Development departments, and the administration’s failure to respond to the alleged violation.

“I think the mayor truly is in violation of the charter and may be forfeiting his office based upon that,” Kenyatta told WWJ’s Vickie Thomas. “I think that we seriously need to look at the procedures going forward to address the violations in the charter.”

One of the specific charter violations Kenyatta cites is taking $30,000 from the Health Department and putting that money into a bank account for a private non-profit institute charged with running the department.

Through spokeswoman Naomi Patton, the mayor’s office said they acknowledged the mistake and returned the money the next day. But Kenyatta says that’s not good enough.

“That’s like someone comes in and robs a bank and then when they say ‘Oh, I saw your picture on TV, you robbed a bank,’ and you go back the next day and you put the money back. Well, the crime has already been committed,” said Kenyatta.

Patton said Bing does not believe he has violated the charter in any way.